Idols for Destruction
The Conflict of Christian Faith and American Culture
By Herbert Schlossberg
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Forward by Charles W. Colson
Preface by Robert H. Bork
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE: Idols of History
History as a Religious Enterprise
The Cult of Historicism
History as Lord of the Universe
Getting in Step with History
Inevitable Progress
La Trahison des Clercs: History as a Polemical Device
The Historical Profession
The Myth of the Seamless Web
The Christian View of History
God’s Action in History
Judgment
Judgment and Mercy
Consequences of the Christian View of History
CHAPTER TWO: Idols of Humanity
Human Beings as Gods
The Ethics of Antinomianism
The Function of Law as Ethical Foundation
Subjective Pragmatism
Humanitarianism
Ressentiment
Equalitarianism
The Misuse of Guilt
The Poverty Issue
Poverty and Culture
Poverty and Work
Poverty and Dependency
The Curse of Ontological Victimhood
The Poor Countries
Domination by Classification
The Exercise of Power
Issues of Life and Death
The Degradation of Humanity
The Irrationality of Humanism
Humanism and the Future
CHAPTER THREE: Idols of Mammon
Covetousness and Theft
The Alchemist as Theif
Inflation
The Role of Banking in the Inflationary Process
Politics and Inflation
Inflation as Redistribution
The Consequences of Inflation
Envy and Economics
Morality and Economics
Materialism
Redistribution
Redistribution to the Rich
Redistribution to Business and Industry
The Political Payoff
The Politics of Pressure Groups
The Power of the State over Economic Life
Bureaucratic Domination
Price Controls
Autonomous Officialdom
The Failure to Invest
The Role of Profit in the Economy
The Onset of Poverty
Freedom and Coercion
The Evasion of Evil
The Failure of Mammon
CHAPTER FOUR: Idols of Nature
Nature and History
Nature as the Whole Show
Science as Religion
Social Science as Ideology
Reductionism and the Sociology of Knowledge
Reason as Lord of the Universe
The Triumph of the Irrational
Assault from the East
Nature as Lord of the Universe
The Triumph of the Irrational
Assault from the East
Nature as Lord of the Universe
The Effects of Naturalist Irrationality
The Cult of Narcissism
A World Become Spooky
Second Face of Janus
Nature in Control
The Riddle of the One and the Many
Prolegomena to Any Christian Epistemology
CHAPTER FIVE: Idols of Power
The Creation of Leviathan
God Marching on Earth
Only the State Can Save Us
A Moral Revolution
Our Father, the State
The State as Idol
Creating Utopia
The Rule of the Elite
The New Gnosticism
The Apotheosis of Power
Scholars-on-Pension
The Shepherds and the Sheep
Bureaucrats, Politicians, and the Exercise of Power
Khadi Law and the End of Justice
Power through the Religion of the Schools
Individualism and Its Enemies
Inferior Magistrates as Countervailing Powers
The Family under Attack
The Attack on Economic Resistance to the State
Freedom as a Vice
The Question of Totalitarianism
The Vision of Global Unity
The Irrationality of Statism
The Sacralization of Power
CHAPTER SIX: Idols of Religion
Anti-Clericalism as a Biblical Theme
False Religion in the Early Church
The Conformity of American Religion
Loss of Intellectual Underpinnings
Humanism and the Church
The War against Economics
Churches of the Messianic State
Theology in the Service of Revolution
Civil Religion and the Churches
The Checkered Church
Democratic Idolatry
The Kingdom Coopted
CHAPTER SEVEN: Consequences and Expectations
Understanding the Present and Forecasting the Future
History as a Moral Universe
Foul Is Useful and Fair Is Not
Moral Man and Immoral Society
Moralism and Guilt in the Absence of Morality
Paganism Revisited: The Mimetic Inversion
The Breakdown of Intellect
Religious Secularity
Manifestations of Religious Warfare
The End of Prosperity
A Society Feeding on its Future
A Society Marked By Strife
Antinomianism as an Accompaniment to Decline
Ethics in a Post-Christian Society
The Drive for Power Accelerates
Poverty and Power
The Onset of Judgment
A Society Transformed
CHAPTER EIGHT: The New Community
The Dual Vision of Righteousness
Prolegomena to any Christian Metaphysic
Freedom and Responsibility
Prolegomena to any Christian Ethic
Idolatry and Injustice
Society and Its Dissenters
Defying Mammon
Responsibilities of the Rich and the Poor
The Stewardship of Wealth
Unity among the Faithful
Defying the Powers
The Preservation of Intellect
Christ against the World
Toward the Triumph of Justice
Persecution
Embarking on the Great Adventure
Index